Super Bowl Sunday has arrived. From scanning the boards looks like some of you never made it to bed in the first place. With the help of my friend Johnnie Walker I was able to get in about 6 hours of sleep but now at 5:07am in the great state of NJ the house is quiet and I'm awake.
40 miles north of where I type this is the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, NJ where I have spent the past 30+ years attending multitudes of sporting events with my parents, family and friends. I went to one of the first Devils games when they moved from Colorado and then was at the Stanley Cup Clinching Game 7 when they beat Anaheim [despite the fact I'm an Islanders fan].
I watched year after year of awful NJ Nets teams until a great 2-year run in the early 2000's where I watched Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin & Co. have two long playoff runs that ended in Championship appearances.
I went to several concerts at the complex although I'm not a huge concert attendee. When I was in high school I spent a lot of Sat. nights with my friends at the Meadowlands racetrack betting [and always losing] on the trotters.
And of course I have attended many football games at the old Giants Stadium. I was at the Dan Marino 'fake spike' game [who was that Jets coach anyway?]. And for a long time I watched the Seattle Seahawks lose to the Jets and Giants there year after year.
By some combination of fate, chance, destiny, Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, Dan Quinn, Paul Allen & a whole lot more - today the Seattle Seahawks are playing in the Super Bowl at that same sports complex. The stadium is new but it's still NJ Turnpike Exit 16W and that holds a lot of meaning for me.
In about 5 hours I will start what is hopefully our greatest journey up the NJ Turnpike, Tony Soprano style. Seahawks car flags flying [have been all week], passing the industrial area of Carteret, the ports of Elizabeth, Newark Airport, IKEA, taking the split to the Western Spur, cringing once again at the monstrosity known as Xanadu, and then arriving at the Meadowlands to park next to the Izod Center [formerly the Brendan Byrne Arena, formerly Continenal Airlines Arena] to take the walk through the long dark tunnel of fate from Izod to Metlife to be joined by an ocean of 12's.
I don't know what's going to happen tonight - but it's going to be an epic day all the way around.
"I love you guys".
Jonathan
40 miles north of where I type this is the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, NJ where I have spent the past 30+ years attending multitudes of sporting events with my parents, family and friends. I went to one of the first Devils games when they moved from Colorado and then was at the Stanley Cup Clinching Game 7 when they beat Anaheim [despite the fact I'm an Islanders fan].
I watched year after year of awful NJ Nets teams until a great 2-year run in the early 2000's where I watched Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin & Co. have two long playoff runs that ended in Championship appearances.
I went to several concerts at the complex although I'm not a huge concert attendee. When I was in high school I spent a lot of Sat. nights with my friends at the Meadowlands racetrack betting [and always losing] on the trotters.
And of course I have attended many football games at the old Giants Stadium. I was at the Dan Marino 'fake spike' game [who was that Jets coach anyway?]. And for a long time I watched the Seattle Seahawks lose to the Jets and Giants there year after year.
By some combination of fate, chance, destiny, Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, Dan Quinn, Paul Allen & a whole lot more - today the Seattle Seahawks are playing in the Super Bowl at that same sports complex. The stadium is new but it's still NJ Turnpike Exit 16W and that holds a lot of meaning for me.
In about 5 hours I will start what is hopefully our greatest journey up the NJ Turnpike, Tony Soprano style. Seahawks car flags flying [have been all week], passing the industrial area of Carteret, the ports of Elizabeth, Newark Airport, IKEA, taking the split to the Western Spur, cringing once again at the monstrosity known as Xanadu, and then arriving at the Meadowlands to park next to the Izod Center [formerly the Brendan Byrne Arena, formerly Continenal Airlines Arena] to take the walk through the long dark tunnel of fate from Izod to Metlife to be joined by an ocean of 12's.
I don't know what's going to happen tonight - but it's going to be an epic day all the way around.
"I love you guys".
Jonathan
